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8
This is especially objectionable during hot weather, when the dustbin
becomes the rendezvous and breeding spot for flies, which have
been proved to be the vehicle for spreading the following diseases:—
Diarrhœa, Whooping Cough,
Typhoid Fever, Tuberculosis,
Scarlet Fever, Erysipelas,
Smallpox, Ringworm,
Measles,
and other infectious or bacterial diseases.
The flies mostly concerned were the bluebottle and common
house fly; their feet end in pads furnished with innumerable hairs,
each hair being provided with a sucker; kept moist by exudation,
each fly can carry 100,000 bacteria, and as the number of eggs a
fly can produce in a season is from two to five hundred million, the
spread of infection by this means can easily be understood. The
difficulty of extirpating such insects is almost insurmountable.
Mistaken sentiment and failure to recognise or comprehend the
vast amount of mischief and injury this apparently harmless insect
is able to do to man, must be my excuse for asking the householders
in the district to assist the sanitary authority to eradicate
this nuisance. It is only by preventing the development and
multiplication of these winged pests that there is any hope for us
for permanent protection from them.
The only remedy for the evil is extermination.
So long as there is material as a nidus for flies to lay their
eggs in, they will increase and multiply; the material consists of
organic dirt, found especially in the following places:—Refuse
heaps, stables and manure heaps, dairies, cowsheds, and middens,
slaughter houses and butcher shops, fried fish shops, confectioneries
and groceries, farmyards and kitchens, and any accumulation of
decomposable refuse.
By all means destroy the fly in any way available, but assist
the sanitary authority by burning in your own grates as much
vegetable waste material as possible, and so, by lessening the
amount of refuse, assist the quick removal of these breeding places;
free use of disinfectant should be practised; fly proof covering
should be furnished for all food exposed for sale or awaiting cooking
in the house. Flies mean filth; filth plus flies is more than a
nuisance; it is a danger to health, and must be abated.